Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2024-12-22
Books mentioned on #455 – Adam Frank: Alien Civilizations and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Adam Frank is an astrophysicist studying star systems and the search for extraterrestrial life and alien civilizations. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Aurora
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson is a hard science fiction novel that examines the immense logistical and biological challenges of a multi-generational space voyage sent to colonize a distant star system.
Discussed“There's also a different perspective presented in Kim Stanley Robinson's book 'Aurora.' Many century ship stories exist where Earth sends out a generation ship to colonize another planet, only to discover that the planet isn't actually habitable for Earth life.”
Where to get it
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Altered Carbon
Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon is a seminal cyberpunk science fiction novel that envisions a futuristic society where human consciousness can be digitally stored on cortical stacks and downloaded into entirely new physical bodies, or sleeves.
Discussed“"Altered Carbon" is a great series on this concept. I think it’s on Netflix; it's a really good series where that’s exactly the idea of sleeves.”
Where to get it
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De Rerum Natura
De Rerum Natura by Titus Lucretius Carus is a classical philosophical poem exploring Epicurean physics, atomism, and the nature of the universe.
Discussed“This is the frontier we are in, and that was the topic of my last book, "Light of the Stars." You've got to do the astrobiology of the Anthropocene.”
Where to get it
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Gödel, Escher, Bach
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R.
Discussed“And every koan, you know, if you've ever read 'Godel, Escher, Bach', he's got a whole chapter on koans. They're kind of non-logical problems that you have to work on.”
Where to get it
